when i look back at the books of my childhood, in my imagination, i see myself looking back. my strong proud forehead alive with thought. my clear eyes open wide to see. i am here! this is my face. i am hear! this is my face. this is where my story …
I estimate that if Latino and African American communities were to create an equitable number of children’s books as Euro Americans, Latinos must create another 890 books and African Americans must create another 600 books—per year. That’s a 94% increase for Latinos and 88% increase for African Americans. ALL communities …
I am pleased to officially introduce WHALEHEART, the first anthology in The Heart of It Collection, and Reflection Press’ first full color children’s book! Whaleheart grew out of my desire to begin creating change right now. After nearly 20 years of sharing the CCBC’s annual diversity statistics of who does …
Our culture has a powerful trend toward the boy-girl gender binary and conformity comes into play from a child’s earliest possible moment. By being gender free, Call Me Tree provides for some a much needed break from the constant boy-girl assumptions and requirements. It can also provide a moment to …
AS A PEOPLE, WE ARE IN DIRE NEED OF LGBT CHILDREN’S BOOKS, ESPECIALLY FROM COMMUNITIES OF COLOR!!! I want to begin by shouting that out BIG AND BOLD! #LGBTkidlit #LGBTofcolorkidlit #LGBTlatinokidlit #LGBTQIkidlit #LGBTfamiliesofcolor I knew what I would find when I began researching LGBTQI children’s literature to include in my …
Like nearly everything in life, I approached ALSC’s Day of Diversity as ritual. The invitation to co-facilitate one of the break-out sessions was the doorway in. The very early preparation began. Flights and hotel were booked. I worked with my co-facilitators, Roxana Barillas and Gretchen Caserotti to craft our session. …
I have been having a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, a lot of everything lately! I’ve got about 5 blog posts in different stages of completion, but I love the ones that just pop out with barely any effort. This is one of those. I had this idea. …
i believe everything is connected and that our life, if viewed through a particular lens, can expose the mythology of our deeper being and life experience. today feels mythic. elements from different parts of my life feel like they’re rising up around me and i can see clearly the threads …
these days I wake up wondering if Darren Wilson is going to be indicted. it’s a strange thing to have in the back of my head as i get up to take care of my one year old, sky. but it reminds me where we are as a people right …
You may or may not notice something different about my new book, Call Me Tree. Nowhere in the story are boy/girl or pronouns used. No ‘he’ or ‘she’ anywhere! I found it easy to write this way because that’s how I think of kids, as kids, not boy kids or …
